“Tenor Thomas Cooley’s attention to detail was a plus throughout the evening, and hushed moments were especially effective. His sweet tone characterized an arresting depiction of the silvery moon, and he created a gorgeous, awed moment in the recitative “In rosy mantle.” Observing the creating of Adam and Eve, Cooley maintained a sense of wonder and tenderness, ascending to a gorgeous pianissimo as Eve looks upon Adam with ‘love and joy and bliss.’”

-Opera News (Creation, Mostly Mozart )

“The tenor Thomas Cooley opened with Britten’s setting of Michelangelo’s Sonnet XVI. So here was a tenor, using the extravagantly resonant acoustics of a National Gallery of Art domed courtyard, to pour phrases of molten quicksilver into notes dreamed up by a composer who, as a gift to his lover, had set to music a poem by a Renaissance artist who had laid down chisel and paintbrush to write words about creativity and love. Whew.”

-New York Times “8 Best Classical Music Moments This Week” (recital w/ Robert Spano)

“Cooley sang with a clean, forward sound and a natural command of style. A superb technique allowed him to articulate the florid passages as musically as he did the more lyrical pages. Most important. there was a nobility of address in everything he sang…”

-Chicago Tribune (Judas Maccabaeus, Music of the Baroque)

“The role of Idomeneo sung by Thomas Cooley was brilliant, especially since several of his arias are easily some of the most challenging in the tenor repertoire. His physical stamina, coupled with his masterful musicianship allowed for an impressive delivery, especially in some challenging melismatic passages. It was an impressive accomplishment…”

-Peninsula Reviews (Idomeneo, Carmel Bach Festival)

“…this is an opera in which the villain casts a long shadow, and tenor Thomas Cooley proved breathtaking as Peter Quint, a ghost seemingly able to hypnotize his victims with, in Cooley's case, a velvety voice.”

-Pioneer Press (Turn of the Screw, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra)

“Cooley displayed fiendish agility and acted with vicious intensity throughout...in a role thatrequired extended range, powerful volume and considerable facility with coloratura.”

-Musical America (Tamerlano, Göttingen Handel Festival)

“The fine tenor was Thomas Cooley. With excellent French he infused these youthful and sensuous pieces with imagination and color.”

-American Record Guide (Les Illuminations, Carnegie Hall)

“★★★★★… Thomas Cooley makes a tragic Samson, from his first soliloquy on his mental anguish,through a heart-rending ‘Total Eclipse’ to his humility and returning strength in Act III.”

-BBC Music Magazine Monthly Choice (Samson SACD Review)

“And then ‘the Thomas Cooley case,’ the Don Ottavio. What should we say? The man sang his two arias so inhumanly beautifully-his ‘Dalla sua pace’ was a diamond –that for a moment we no longer knew what we were doing. The last thing we are aiming for is the Fritz Wunderlich police, but our thoughts wandered for a moment to the best Mozart tenor ever. Cooley’s expressiveness, virtuosity and expressiveness [sic] are of an extraterrestrial level. A breathtaking climax.“

—Opera Gazette (Don Giovanni Orchestra of the 18th Century)

“The tenor in this opera is provided beautifully by Thomas Cooley’s dulcet tones, as Don Ottavio, who hopes to win Donna Anna’s hand by consoling her after the murder of her father, Il Commendatore. This for me was the outstanding performance of the evening.”

—Arts Talk Magazine NL